PUC orders Edison to prepare preliminary engineering studies of Chino Hills undergrounding high-voltage power lines CHINO HILLS -- It will be next year before residents of this city will find out if their battle against Southern California Edison is over.

The state Public Utilities Commission president has ordered Edison to prepare testimony based on preliminary engineering studies of options for running transmission lines underground through this city.

PUC President Michael Peevey is requiring Edison to develop the information by Feb. 28, 2013.

"My objective is to ensure that the PUC moves promptly to develop a complete record with respect to the alternative of putting this line underground in Chino Hills, including the environmental impact of this type of construction. We need a better estimate of the cost based on a detailed engineering design," Peevey said.

"I applaud the efforts of SCE and the City of Chino Hills to explore this alternative through settlement negotiations over the past few months. Those talks have been very helpful in narrowing the scope of the controversy ... I am directing both sides to sharpen their pencils to bring the underground solution into better focus."

The $2.1 billion Tehachapi Renewable Transmission power line project aims to carry wind-generated electricity from Kern County to the Los Angeles Basin.

Edison already has started extending the towers about five miles into the right-of-way.

But city officials and the grassroots group Hope for the Hills have advocated building the project underground or around the city through neighboring Chino Hills State Park.

However, Peevey said the construction through the park has been taken off the table by Edison and the city.

The request for information will allow the PUC to then select, through its final decision in this case, the best solution for the renewable energy transmission line, Peevey said.

"We cannot lose sight of the fact that time is of the essence in getting this line completed and energized by 2015. We must enable the delivery of electric generation over the project on the schedule currently anticipated," he said.

The ruling directs Edison to develop prepared testimony that relies on preliminary engineering to more fully describe and estimate the costs and construction timeline for undergrounding a single-circuit with three cables and a single-circuit with two cables.

"I have excluded the third option, referred to as `underground single-circuit with one cable per phase in conduit in existing Chino Hills right-of-way,' because that option would not supply enough margin under normal and emergency conditions," reads Peevey's ruling.

Chino Hills officials have spent more than $2 million battling Edison in a lawsuit for two years insisting the right-of-way is too narrow for the proposed 198-foot towers and that it causes safety hazards.

A news release from Chino Hills read, "It appears that proceeding to a formal hearing with testimony is the procedure most likely to result in a decision to adopt an underground option for the TRTP line, and the city will participate in that process to the full extent of its abilities and resources."

"The fact that the process continues is positive," City Manager Mike Fleager said.

"At any point in this, the process could be stopped. And we necessarily aren't guaranteed hearings and so on and so forth, so the order from President Peevey to move this forward to a hearing process and it being very focused on a solution is a positive thing."

In response to Peevey's order, Edison spokesman Paul Klein said, "We will comply with the commission's order to file testimony regarding undergrounding options for transmission lines running through the City of Chino Hills."

Construction of the Tehachapi project through Chino Hills has been halted since Nov. 10, when the commission ordered Edison to stop until it presented "feasibility, cost and timing" for five alternative routes. That was complete Jan. 10.

Then on Jan. 25, Edison was ordered, again, to investigate a single-circuit underground scenario.

Edison and city officials entered mediation over the issue. On May 3, the city and Edison went into settlement negotiations on the routing of the 500-kilovolt power lines.

Interested parties may develop and serve prepared testimony to the CPUC, which will undertake review required by the California Environmental Quality Act before issuing a final decision, anticipated in 2013, according to a news release.

Construction work in Chino Hills will not restart until the commission makes its final determination.

"I think that SCE really doesn't understand what they're doing to this community. People's lives are literally on hold. People do not know what to do with their lives, it all hinges on this decision," said Bob Goodwin, President of Hope for the Hills.

Goodwin said he respects the PUC's decision and it appears the commission wants to do the right and proper thing. However, he doesn't understand why it is going to take Edison another eight months to provide verifiable, accurate and believable information.